Divergent Tales of a Mission Murder

This much no one disputes: a grainy surveillance video from outside of Mr. Pickles Sandwich Shop on 20th and South Van Ness shows a man stumbling into the frame and slumping against a tree around midnight on October 30th, 2012. Jose Matias-Aguilon had been shot. Just 28 years old, he died later at the hospital from a bullet wound to the chest.

From there, the assistant district attorney, Danielle Douglas, and public defender, Christine Schenone, don’t agree on much. The prosecutor says Sterling Samm, a 21-year-old high school dropout from San Pablo, is guilty of a street robbery gone horribly wrong. The charges — robbery, attempted robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and murder — could put him in prison for life. Schenone says he was coerced into an alleged false confession and the lack of gunshot residue on Samm’s hands proves his innocence.

As he was led into the courtroom at the Hall of Justice Wednesday morning, Samm gave a quick, shy smile to family members sitting in the front row of the gallery, four women and a teenage boy. Samm’s roughly six-foot frame looked slight in his black suit, a neck tattoo peeking from the top of his white button-down shirt, and a fresh-looking fade hair cut. Behind Samm’s family sat a half dozen Matias-Aguilon supporters, stoically observing the closing arguments of the trial that has been running since mid-December.